Speaker

The speaker of the TED Talk “Am I not human? A call for criminal justice reform” is Marlon Peterson, who is a former convict advocating for human justice and developing programs aimed at preventing gun violence.

In the video, he is dressed semi-formally and often uses his hands to engage the audience. He also keeps eye contact with them. His speech is fast-paced but in a soft voice which makes him approachable.

The speaker first introduces himself using contrast. First he mentions being considered a hero: “She wrote: ‘When I become famous, I will tell everyone that I know a hero named Marlon Peterson’ ” (l. 1). He then contradicts this statement: “Heroes rarely look like me. In fact, I’m what garbage looks like” (l. 2). This contrast is meant to capture the audience’s attention and make the speaker appear as someone who has an interesting personal story to share. It also helps to suggest that the speaker does not conform to the audience’s expectations.

Peterson also mentions: “I believe we learn more from questions than we do from answers” (l. 6). This suggests he is open-minded and encourages the audience to adopt the same attitude during his talk.

In the speech, Peterson gives a lot of details about his background. For example, he mentions that his parents “are from Trinidad...